8 Discontinued Subway Sandwiches And Subs Customers Used To Love

What's your go-to Subway sandwich? If you answered the Italian BMT, you're not alone. In fact, our taste-tester once named it as one of the iconic fast food items they'd trade the world to try again for the first time. This sub first hit the menu in the 1970s and has been one of the chain's best-sellers ever since, meaning that fans all over the U.S. can pretty much always reliably pick up this sandwich from their local Subway. 

But not everyone has been so lucky. Some have had to face the cruel reality of their favorite Subway sandwiches and fillings being discontinued. In fact, some have been so devastated by the loss of their go-to sandwich that they have even traveled overseas to find it in international Subway locations. Extreme, maybe, but we can't fault the dedication. Joey Tribbiani would be proud.

In honor of all the sandwiches that have been loved and lost, we're taking a walk down Subway memory lane. If your favorite is on this list, our thoughts are with you at this difficult, sandwich-less time.

Nowadays, if you head to your local Subway, you're going to be met with a plethora of options, including Protein Bowls, wraps, and salads, alongside the classic 6-inch or footlong sandwich options. But it hasn't always been this way. In fact, there was a time when Subway offered round sandwiches that were just 4 inches long.

Back in the 1990s, customers could choose from a range of 4-inch sandwich options, including turkey breast, seafood and crab, tuna, and pepperoni. Many remember those days with fondness. "I used to get these all the time during my high school lunch break back in the 90's," said one Redditor in the r/subway subreddit. Another added, "Subway needs to bring this back. I can't step into a subway without wishing for a bologna sandwich on that deli style round bread. Still remember the taste."

But aside from taste, another reason to bring back the 4-inch round sandwiches is the price, of course. Right now, the cheapest options on Subway's sandwich menu often don't dip below around $4.99. However, back in the mid-1990s, you could pick up a 4-inch round cheese sandwich for just $0.99, or a roast beef version for $1.59. 

If you're looking for a meat-free option at Subway, you have two choices. You can opt for the Veggie Delite, which is basically just all of the salad and a few slices of Provolone cheese, or the Veggie Patty. Both are reliable vegetarian options with plenty of fans, but still, many diners can't help but reminisce about the days when there was another plant-based option in the club: The Beyond Meat Meatball Marinara.

As the name suggests, this sandwich, launched in 2019, was a meat-free take on the popular Meatball Sub (which is still on the menu). It featured plant-based meatballs (developed by alternative meat brand Beyond Meat especially for Subway), alongside marinara sauce, Parmesan cheese, and Provolone slices.

The sub didn't last very long, though, and by 2020, fans were already mourning its loss. Still, some haven't given up hope that, one day, it might make a return. "I miss the vegan meatball marinara soooo so much why did they get rid of it," posted one Redditor in r/subway. "Will they ever bring it back?"

In 2008, Subway added the Chicken Pizziola to the menu. According to reports from the time, the footlong sandwich was calzone-inspired, loaded with grilled chicken, spicy pepperoni, cheese, and marinara sauce, and cost just $5. No wonder it was a hit. It seemed to make an appearance again in 2012, but it's no longer on the permanent menu in the U.S. For those willing to fly to Aruba, though, it seems to be still on the Subway menu there.

While some critics panned the sandwich, many customers truly loved it. "The day Subway took this off the menu is the day I stopped going to Subway," said one Redditor in the r/cookingforbeginners subreddit. They also posted a recipe for making your own from scratch.

If you're not willing to book a plane ticket or create your own, though, some Subway fans say that if you ask your sandwich artist nicely, they might still make you a version in store. That said, it depends on your server, as some have requested it with little success. "I tried to have them make it 'manually' and they were all butt hurt about it," added one Redditor. Aruba it is.

The Seafood Sensation is a sandwich with a fairly long history and a heck of a lot of fans. It seems that the first variation of this sandwich appeared in the 1970s, when it was called Alaskan King Crab. Then in the 1980s and 1990s, another similar offering shows up on menus as Seafood & Crab. "I used to love the seafood and crab sub, with lettuce, tomato, and onions," wrote one Redditor in r/VintageMenus. "Stopped going to Subway when they stopped selling it in the '90's."

But it seems that Subway didn't stop selling Seafood & Crab completely. At some point in the early 2000s, the sandwich became the Seafood Sensation. This iteration was basically a seafood salad made with suirimi (imitation crab meat, usually made with fish like Alaska pollock or Pacific whiting) and mayonnaise. It was still on the U.S. menu in 2019, but in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it disappeared, and it didn't come back.

To say that fans were devastated by the loss is an understatement. There are petitions, Facebook groups, and countless Reddit threads dedicated to the Seafood Sensation. Some have even spent entire vacations tracking it down in overseas locations, and, fortunately, many have had success at locations in Australia, the Cayman Islands, and Portugal.

If you've never added a layer of chips to your sandwich (Subway or otherwise), then you're missing out. Arguably, nothing elevates a sandwich like a layer of crunchy chips. In 2014, Subway also tried to sell customers on adding chips to their sandwiches, with the launch of the Fritos Enchilada Melt, and for many, it worked.

This sandwich, which returned in 2018, was pretty much exactly what it sounds like: Chicken smothered in enchilada sauce, with lots of melted cheese, and a layer of Fritos corn chips. While the menu item doesn't seem to provoke quite the same amount of nostalgia as the Seafood Sensation (we looked, and we couldn't find any petitions dedicated to bringing it back), plenty do reminisce about it online.

"That chicken enchilada sub was the best [smelling] sub ever," wrote one Redditor in the r/subway subreddit. Another called it "one of the best subs ever," and someone else declared in a separate thread that this particular sandwich was their "Roman empire." Fortunately, it's pretty easy to whip up from scratch, as long as you've got chicken, enchilada sauce, cheese, and a bag of Fritos on hand.

Chicken fans aren't short on options at Subway. At the time of writing, for example, customers can choose from sandwiches like Chicken & Bacon Ranch, Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki, and simple Grilled Chicken. But for some, nothing beats the Orchard Chicken Salad. "This sandwich was my absolute favorite of all time," wrote one Redditor in r/subway.

The sandwich, which hit the menu in 2010 (and then came back in 2011), combined diced chicken breast with apples, raisins, cranberries, lettuce, tomatoes, and mayonnaise. As some have observed already, the filling was pretty similar to a classic Waldorf salad, which also features apple pieces and mayonnaise, alongside other ingredients like celery and toasted walnuts.

"I lived off Subway for about 2 weeks in-between moving houses a few years back, [and] got this almost on the daily," the Redditor continued. They're not alone. In fact, if the many copycat recipes online are anything to go by, it seems that many people miss this fruity offering.

As we've established, Subway isn't short on chicken. But, and that's a big but for many customers, it doesn't have one specific, beloved chicken sub anymore, and that's the Oven Roasted Chicken sandwich, which used to combine Subway's oven-roasted chicken with the customer's choice of salad and sauce. Sure, there's rotisserie-style and grilled chicken, but according to many, it's just not the same. 

"They have discontinued the roasted chicken breast and I [haven't] found a suitable replacement option. I am annoyed," wrote one Redditor in a post in r/subway that received 100 upvotes at the time of writing. Another added, "I hate the rotisserie chicken. Bring back the chicken breast! Makes me question if the claims about it not being real chicken [were] true."

The claims they're referring to were made in 2017, and based on real scientific evidence. A report conducted by the Canadian investigative watchdog CBC Marketplace found that only half of Subway's oven-roasted chicken was actually made with real chicken, while the rest was made with soy. Remind you of anything? Cough, cough, tuna scandal. Despite the reports, many don't care about the DNA makeup of the oven-roasted chicken (which vanished from the menu in the early 2020s) and are still hoping that it will make a return one day.

Let's be honest: If you're craving a slow-roasted beef sandwich, you probably head to Arby's. But in 2019, Subway decided to challenge the fast-food giant's popular menu item with its own Pit-Smoked Brisket Sub.

The sandwich, which didn't even last the year, was made with beef that had been slow-smoked for 13 hours, as well as smoky cheddar cheese and barbecue sauce. It gained quite a following, and customers and Sandwich Artists alike became big fans. "Worked at Subway when this thing was introduced, was a pain to make but booooy was it the best item on their menu," wrote one former Subway employee on X. In the r/subway subreddit, one user even crowned it "the best sub Subway ever put out."

The Pit-Smoked Brisket Sub is long gone, but if you're a beef fan, Subway does still have one option: Its classic Roast Beef. That said, when our taste-tester compared this Subway option with Jimmy John's, they declared the Big John the winner. So if it's beef you're after, maybe it's best to steer clear of Subway (unless the Pit-Smoked Brisket makes a return).